The sympathetic innervation of the renal tubules and vasculature was characterized by measuring the overlap of accumulations of autoradiographic grains (AAGs) on these structures in autoradiograms of kidney sections from rats injected with tritiated norepinephrine. AAG overlap was used as an indirect measure of the innervation of those structures. The renal vasculature showed x 4.5 more AAG overlap than observed on renal tubules. The greatest amount of AAG overlap occurred on afferent arterioles, followed by efferent arterioles, interlobular arteries, cortical capillaries, arcuate arteries, and renal veins. High concentration of AAGs occurred along the vascular bundles of the outer stripe. In the tubular nephron the proximal tubule had the greatest amount of AAG overlap, followed by the cortical thick ascending limb of Henle, the connecting tubule, the distal convoluted tubule, and the collecting duct. It was found that afferent arterioles had significantly higher mean density of AAG overlap than efferent arterioles for the superficial, midcortical, and juxtamedullary (vascular bundles excluded) renal cortex. There was consistently more AAG perimeter facing the interstitium than overlapping the vasculature. These observations, together with the ultrastructural distribution of synaptic vesicles in varicosities, suggest that the interstitium might be an additional pathway of neurotransmitter access to the effector structures.